Thursday 22 June 2017 at 11:13 pm
As some new people play with FileMaker's iOS SDK and our MBS Plugin, here a few steps to give you an easier start:
- Get iOSAppSDKPackage_16.0.1.tbz on the iOS App SDK webpage from FileMaker's community benefits.
- Unpack the archive.
- Open Terminal, cd to the folder of the app sdk. For me this command line:
cd /Users/cs/Desktop/iOSAppSDKPackage_16.0.1
- Run the makeprojdir command giving a folder name, the app name and the identifier:
./makeprojdir test test de.monkeybreadsoftware.test
Of course you use your own names and bundle id.
- Open test project in Xcode
- In the target popup menu you can select a simulated device and when you run the app. The section for installed plugins will be empty.
Congratulations, now the app should run in simulator!
If you have trouble till here, maybe you review the
iOS App SDK 16 Guide.
- Now you can drag & drop the plugin into the plugins section in the Xcode project right in the Custom Application Resources folder.
- Run the app again and it should show the plugin listed with version.
Now you can use the plugin in your scripts for the solution and test in the simulator.
If the plugin is not visible, please check logs and see if some error occurred. Please use MBS("
Trace") command to write all plugin calls to the log in Xcode, so you spot errors easier.
- Next you can change target to be your iPhone and run the app on the iPhone. This may need some code signing things and an Apple ID registered for developing.
- Go to build settings and assign a Team for the code signing. Xcode can do the rest, at least for me.
- Once this is set the app can build and run on your iPhone.
Now screen shut look like the screenshot on the right side.
- Next step is to build for archive.
- This gives you the build app with symbol file (for debugging) and an "Upload to App Store" button, if that is your destination.
- Well, the creation of the ipa file to distribute will succeed.
- But for the App Store, you will run into issues: fmplugin files are not supposed to be there.
Anyway, when you distribute your app via Mobile Device Management, you just need the app file or the ipa archive.
You may want to split our plugin into an arm only version for distribution to save some space.
Enjoy FileMaker on iOS with MBS Plugin!
Thursday 22 June 2017 at 7:41 pm
The
OmegaBundle.net will finally end 4th July 2017.
After two extensions it must come to an end and if you missed all the announcements, we finally need to say: sorry.
Get your copy now on
OmegaBundle.net.
Thursday 22 June 2017 at 10:03 am
While cleaning up the attic I found this package.
Which nicely proofs that we used to use FileMaker a long time ago. So somewhere 1996/1997 we bought Claris FileMaker Pro 3 and used it with a little database to track some inventory.
I do remember seeing the typical record navigation controls in several apps over the years and those may have been FileMaker runtimes.
When we started making FileMaker plugins in 2006, we got FileMaker Pro Advanced in version 8.5.
So how long ago are your roots to using FileMaker?
At FileMaker conferences I met people who started with FileMaker Pro 1.0 or even before with Nutshell.
And even if you needed to convert your database a few times, there could be solutions which run the last 30 years with FileMaker. That's a long time in computer history!
Wednesday 21 June 2017 at 5:31 pm
New in this prerelease of the 17.3 plugins:
Download:
monkeybreadsoftware.de/xojo/download/plugin/Prerelease/.
Or ask us to be added to our shared Dropbox folder.
Wednesday 21 June 2017 at 4:54 pm
New in this prerelease of the 7.3 MBS FileMaker Plugin:
Download at
monkeybreadsoftware.de/filemaker/files/Prerelease/ or ask for being added to the dropbox shared folder.
Tuesday 20 June 2017 at 8:58 pm
The XojoTalk podcast just got it's pow(2,5)th episode. So go and listen to it!
- Shoving Phones In Their Pockets with Geoff Perlman
- That's A Lot Of Tens with Bob Keeney
- Developer of Long Standing with Eric Gibbon
- Grizzled Veterans with Travis Hill
- Where's My Column? with Marc Zeedar
- I have no idea what you're talking about with Kem Tekinay
- Snowgun with Kevin Cully
- Really Wicked with Hal Gumbert
- It's my dog with Norman Palardy
- Strap a Mac Pro to my wrist with Tim Dietrich
- The forum is my personal training ground with Tim Hare
- Shipping is a feature with Paul Levine
- Hockey Programmer with Mike Cotrone
- Software Maniacs with Ken Whitaker
- Type my password like an animal with Justin Elliott
- Magical Toolkit with Craig Boyd
- I Keep My Secrets to Myself with Bruno Frechette and Jonanthan Guillemette
- Not The Pi You Eat with Geoff Perlman
- Ghost Touches with Geoff Perlman
- Spoiler Alert with Bob Keeney and Marc Zeedar
- Enterprise Consulting with Arthur Couture and Tom Rupprecht
- I Like Things That Just Work with Tim Parnell
- Take a Walk with Michel Bujardet
- Figure out stuff on my own with Kimball Larsen
- Toughest thing is the substitutions with Jim Meyer
- Happened by Accident with Tom Catchesides
- Database Goddess with Carol Keeney
- Email is Not a Project Management Tool with Susan Fennema
- I Went to High School with the Apple File System Guy with Tim Dietrich
- We Like Our Customers with Geoff Perlman
- Virtual Office Rules with Dana Brown and Alyssa Foley
- Copy, Paste, Search and Replace with Terry Eutsler
Subscribe at iTunes or to
RSS Feed
Tuesday 20 June 2017 at 6:20 pm
Another function set for iOS is done: ImagePicker. It allows you to pick photos from the saved camera roll, the photo library and take a new picture via camera. You can control a lot of settings, e.g. whether to allow editing or which camera (front or rear) to use.
In all cases we call a script trigger later when the user selected an image. There you can take the picture and add it to a container field in your database.
Here is the same script to show the picker. Source Type is for example "Camera":
Set Variable [ $SourceType ; Value: Get(ScriptParameter) ]
Set Variable [ $r ; Value: MBS( "ImagePicker.IsSourceTypeAvailable"; $sourceType ) ]
If [ $r ≠ 1 ]
Show Custom Dialog [ "Can't pick picture." ; "The source " & $sourceType & " is not available." ]
Exit Script [ Text Result: "failed" ]
End If
Set Variable [ $r ; Value: MBS( "ImagePicker.New" ) ]
Set Variable [ $r ; Value: MBS( "ImagePicker.SetScript"; Get(FileName); "GotImage") ]
Set Variable [ $r ; Value: MBS( "ImagePicker.SetSourceType"; $sourceType) ]
Set Variable [ $r ; Value: MBS( "ImagePicker.SetAllowsEditing"; 1 ) ]
Set Variable [ $r ; Value: MBS( "ImagePicker.SetCameraCaptureMode"; "Photo" ) ]
Set Variable [ $r ; Value: MBS( "ImagePicker.SetCameraDevice"; "Front" ) ]
Set Variable [ $r ; Value: MBS( "ImagePicker.SetCameraFlashMode"; "Auto" ) ]
Set Variable [ $r ; Value: MBS( "ImagePicker.SetShowsCameraControls"; 1 ) ]
Set Variable [ $r ; Value: MBS( "ImagePicker.Present") ]
Later this script is called:
Set Variable [ $r ; Value: MBS( "ImagePicker.Dismiss" ) ]
If [ Get(ScriptParameter) ≠ "Cancel" ]
If [ MBS( "ImagePicker.HasMedia" ) ]
New Record/Request
Set Variable [ $Image ; Value: MBS( "ImagePicker.MediaEditedImage"; "PNG") ]
If [ IsEmpty ( $image ) ]
Set Variable [ $Image ; Value: MBS( "ImagePicker.MediaOriginalImage"; "PNG") ]
End If
Set Field [ ImagePicker::Picture ; $image ]
Commit Records/Requests [ With dialog: Off ]
End If
End If
As you see we dismiss the dialog and add the picture to a container. But of course more is possible, e.g. by taking a picture automatically.
We'll see what wonderful solutions you will build using our plugin! See you at DevCon in Phoenix.
Thursday 15 June 2017 at 1:14 pm
Just a reminder that the June VXUG meeting is today (June 15th) at 2:00 PM Eastern Time.
Today's presenters include:
- Dana Brown, Xojo's Director of Marketing, who will give us an update on XDC 2018.
- Tim Dietrich, who will demonstrate Aloe, a Xojo class and development methodology that can be used to create public Web sites using Xojo.
- Wayne Golding of Axis Direct Ltd, who will give a presentation on using Xojo to develop Windows Service Apps.
We still have space available. If you haven't already signed up, and would like to attend, click
here.
Tuesday 13 June 2017 at 10:26 pm
In gerade mal vier Monaten startet die
FileMaker Konferenz in Salzburg.
So langsam füllt sich die Konferenz und noch ein paar Tage gibt es den Frühbucherrabatt. (bis 17.6.)
Vom 12. bis 14. Oktober 2017 treffen sich wieder ca. 200 Teilnehmer im Pitter in Salzburg. Die deutschsprachige FileMaker Entwickler treffen sich um Neuigkeiten zu FileMaker zu erfahren, mit den Mitarbeitern von FileMaker in Kontakt zu kommen und um alte Freundschaften zu pflegen.
Bitte bald anmelden um ein Ticket zu bekommen. Die Konferenztickets und die Zimmer im Hotel Crowne Plaza Salzburg waren in den vorherigen Jahren schon vor der Konferenz ausverkauft.
Für die
MBS Plugin Schulung am 11. Oktober sind noch Plätze frei. Nehmen sie sich einen Tag Zeit zu erfahren, was alles im MBS Plugin steckt, was dieses Jahr neu ist und probieren wir direkt einige Funktionen aus. Je nach den Wünschen der Teilnehmer bauen wir gerne neue Beispiele, die dann bestimmte Funktionen zeigen.
Tuesday 13 June 2017 at 3:57 pm
Thanks to the 64-bit debugger in Xojo 2017, we can now easily try 64-bit applications and that's a must as Apple's latest frameworks don't support 32-bit anymore.
So yesterday and today I worked on a test project including a Xojo plugin for
CoreML framework. Here is my test project running:
While macOS 10.13 is not ready for a few months, we can already download the beta versions of macOS and Xcode and play with it. You can use a model quite easy as you see in the
Core ML presentation from
WWDC 2017. With just a few lines of code we load a model, setup source image and run it though the neural network to classify the picture. You can get sample models from Apple's
Machine Learning website.
The plugin will be available later this year with the macOS release.
Tuesday 13 June 2017 at 11:28 am
The
OmegaBundle for Xojo including MBS Plugins is ending on the weekend:
If you plan to buy the bundle, please do it soon.
Monday 12 June 2017 at 12:03 am
While working on the
MailComposer and
MessageComposer functions, I also quickly added the
SocialComposer functions for posting to Facebook, Twitter, SinaWeibo and TencentWeibo.
Screenshots are in German, but whatever localization you use, the dialog will look correct in your language.
For both you can check if service is configured for the user and show the panel with your message to send. You can define message text, add URLs and images from both container fields and image files on the device. The user can change text and press send. You get a script triggered when the user is finished.
We also have
SocialRequest functions to post without showing a dialog and those do work on iOS now.
Will be soon available in next plugin version. Or email if you like to try today.
Sunday 11 June 2017 at 1:12 pm
You may all be
watching videos from WWDC and learn what's coming soon for macOS and iOS.
Now the are a lot of new APIs, but I'd like to know from you what you'd like to see in our plugins for
Xojo and
FileMaker.
Usually we provide lower level wrapper for Xojo to Apple's APIs for macOS with hiding all the threading issues from you and translating values from native Xojo types to the matching Foundation types. As there is currently no iOS plugin SDK for Xojo, we can't make all features available via declares.
For FileMaker we usually provide a much more higher level API to do selected things and provide plugin functions for both macOS and iOS.
If you have ideas and wishes, please email me. I'll keep a list and if we have a lot of wishes for a given API, I may give it some priority.
Saturday 10 June 2017 at 10:23 pm
We added new functions
MessageComposer and
MailComposer to create text messages and emails right in your FileMaker iOS SDK based applications with
MBS FileMaker Plugin:
Screenshots are in German, but whatever localization you use, the dialog will look correct in any language.
For both you can check if sending is possible, show the panel with your message to send. You can define subject, body text and add several attachments. For emails we can use HTML text of course.
The user can change text and add more attachments of course.
Will be soon available in next plugin version. Or email if you like to try today.
Saturday 10 June 2017 at 11:24 am
For browsing help files, the
Dash application is very useful on Mac and iOS.
For Windows you can use the
Zeal application.
Here you can click to launch Dash and install our plugin help:
MBS FileMaker Plugin
You can download the archives manually on our website for
FileMaker.
For FileMaker you find the docsets for v15 and v16 here in several languages:
FileMaker Dash Docsets
Feedback is welcome.
Saturday 10 June 2017 at 10:56 am
Xojo Inc. is
looking for speakers for
XDC 2018, the biggest Xojo conference in 2018 from April 25 to 27 in Denver, Colorado, USA:
We are looking for talented and passionate speakers to present at XDC 2018 in Denver, CO! In addition to the fame, becoming an XDC speaker gets you a 50% discount on conference registration!
If you are interested in presenting, please submit a proposal with your session topic(s) and brief description(s) (3-5 sentences), along with your full name and contact info (preferred email and phone number), to the XDC Conference Coordinator at dana@xojo.com. If you are interested in presenting, but not sure of a topic, please reach out to us and we can help you develop your session. The deadline to submit proposals is Friday, June 30, 2017.
Here are some tips on submitting a good session topic.
Still 20 days left to submit a proposal. Myself I can of course talk about what's new in MBS Plugins, or take about making plugins or maybe make a session about comparing what machine code the compiler creates with various options and Xojo versions.
Friday 09 June 2017 at 2:35 pm
New in this prerelease of the 7.3 MBS FileMaker Plugin:
Download at
monkeybreadsoftware.de/filemaker/files/Prerelease/ or ask for being added to the dropbox shared folder.
Friday 09 June 2017 at 2:10 pm
New in this prerelease of the 17.3 plugins:
- Improved key length handling for CipherMBS class. Init functions now report true on success and false on failure. Short keys are filled with zeros (as before), we report false in case of errors, but still may take reduced key (as before).
- Updated SQLite to 3.19.3.
- Fixed bug with DynaPDFMBS.ShowDifference and rotated pages.
- Added QueryMT method for NetSNMPMBS class.
Download:
monkeybreadsoftware.de/xojo/download/plugin/Prerelease/.
Or ask us to be added to our shared Dropbox folder.
Friday 09 June 2017 at 10:37 am
On my next visit to Nuremberg, I'd love to make another developer meeting:
Wer hat Interesse an einem FileMaker & Xojo Entwicklertreffen im Juni in Nürnberg?
Einfach gemütlich zusammen sitzen und über Xojo und FileMaker Neuigkeiten, Konferenzen und die täglichen Probleme bei der Softwareentwicklung unterhalten.
Gerne zeige ich auch neue Pluginfunktionen oder helfe bei Problemen mit Projekten. Einfach Computer mitbringen und was zeigen.
Wir treffen uns am 16. Juni 2018 in einem Biergarten in Nürnberg.
Bei Interesse bitte bei mir melden.
Thursday 08 June 2017 at 10:00 am
The next
MBS Xojo conference in Germany will be 6th/7th September 2018 in Munich.
We will have a great
conference in the
Maritim Hotel near the main station can offer us 50+ rooms as well as one or two conference rooms. If we have a lot of speakers and attendees, we could go two track!
We have blocked 100 rooms and offer an 122 Euro rate for the nights from 5th to 8th September including pool, breakfast and Wifi.
Nearby other hotels in the area offer rooms for less, down to 60 Euro/night.
Walking distance to center of city is just a few hundred meters. So you can walk to
Hofbräuhaus, city hall and the famous historic buildings like palace
Nymphenburg. And if you like to take a drive in the countryside, you are quickly down to the alps. e.g. take the train up on
Wendelstein for a great view.
The schedule:
5th September 2018: Training Day in English for beginners and advanced
6th September 2018: First Conference Day
7th September 2018: Second Conference Day
8th September 2018: Training Day in German for beginners and advanced
We look forward the conference and plan to have get togethers on all evenings for having dinner together.
For the rest of the year, we look for attendees and speakers to sign up. If you have a good idea for a session in English, please send us your proposal.
